Page 75 of High Noon

Thump.

Thump.

I blinked against the bright white light. It’s so pretty. My fingers flinched toward it, wanting nothing more than to feel its warmth and bask in the comfort radiating from it. The desire to get lost in it and never be found was overpowering. I blinked again and the light receded, haloing at the edges of my vision.

“Asa, no!” Enoch screamed, blurring out the door.

Something sharp tore into my throat.

My fingers fumbled to push him away, but I was too weak. I pushed at the ground with my feet, but they slipped over the pebbles, raking across the surface, unable to find solid footing. I couldn’t fight him off. He drank my blood and at the same time, a warmth trickled through my veins.

Enoch tore Asa away from me, but it was too late. It only took one bite. A few seconds, and I was already feeling the effects of turning. He rushed to my side, scrambling to stop the bleeding, barely containing himself from the siren-like call of my blood. His eyes were as black as night, his movements erratic. “Help me!” he screamed to no one at all. Asa wouldn’t bother. And I couldn’t help myself.

Kohana again limped from the back door. This time, he cocked a pistol and aimed it at my head. I let him. But Enoch, tracking the path of my eyes, saw Kohana and knocked it from his hand, sending Kohana flying with it.

I blinked, keeping my eyes closed for a moment.

Enoch and Asa were fighting. The ground felt like it was buckling, the wind bending to their blows. Time felt slower. Seconds became hours.

I blinked again.

A tear leaked from my eye. I don’t want to be a monster. I grabbed my stake, although I was unable to grasp it tightly. The slick wood slipped unsteadily in my hand.

Titus was gone. It was sick to think that I almost hoped Terah had taken him, because Kael getting his cruel hands on him was a far worse situation than anything she could have done. He’d been pulled home, and I was next. If Enoch didn’t reach us when we landed, we were screwed.

Maru is going to be so pissed.

I can’t be a monster. Not in this time. Not in the future.

If I don’t do this now, I won’t be able to. I won’t want to. I’ll want nothing but blood.

I raised the stake.

“Enoch!” Asa shouted, clambering up from where Enoch had tossed him several yards away. He reached out to me, like he could magically pull the stake out of my hand from afar. The wind kicked up all around us, encasing us in a dusty cloud. “Don’t do it, Eve!”

Enoch’s attention snapped to me. Through the dust, I gritted my teeth, aimed the stake at my heart, and… Enoch batted it out of my hand.

I was a liar. Another vampire had disarmed me.

Tears began and wouldn’t stop. “Kohana. Kohana, help,” I pleaded.

But he was in no shape to kill me. He groaned, cupping his side where fresh blood blossomed from his bandages. Asa stared at him intently, his nostrils flaring at the blood flowing freely from his wound. Kohana pushed at the ground with his feet, inching away from the Nephilim who’d scented his blood.

Enoch gathered me in his arms. “I don’t want to be a vampire,” I slurred.

“I know,” he tried to comfort, but his voice trembled like the troubled water from the spring.

“This isn’t the path I chose. Asa chose it for me.” I coughed. “I hate you, Asa.”

“When you look back on this day and laugh, I’ll accept your thanks then,” he spat.

“I’ll never thank you for this,” I seethed.

Asa laughed mirthlessly. “But you’ll have an eternity to consider it, providing you don’t do anything foolish like stake yourself in the meantime. All you’ve done is fret about going home, though you say it’s the only place you want to be. Go home, Eve. Go home and show them what a mistake they made in sending you after us, in torturing you, in thinking they were more powerful than you were. Make them regret every second.”

Every second. I heard my suit hiss and the circuits fired. I was lightning embodied, a storm bursting with rage and revenge, and I was headed straight for Verona. I could feel it in my stomach, the buzz of the pull. The vibration of it rattled through my bones. My tech blazed through my skin.

“I’m losing her!” Enoch shrieked. “Help me!” He patted my face. “Eve.”

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